


This Is Going To Last

by RazzmatazzWillow



Category: Leverage
Genre: All mistakes are mine, Brotp, Family, Gen, Trust, Trust Issues, can be read as pre-relationship, unbetaed
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-11-04
Updated: 2014-11-04
Packaged: 2018-02-24 02:34:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 886
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2565110
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RazzmatazzWillow/pseuds/RazzmatazzWillow
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>For a time Eliot’s world was the sound of grinding bones, the feel of bruised knuckles and the taste of blood in his mouth. So he thinks it’s fair that he’s a little skeptical when it comes to trust.</p>
            </blockquote>





	This Is Going To Last

Trust doesn’t come easily to Eliot. How could it? He’s spent the better part of his life, virtually alone with little to no contact with the outside world. Just job, after job. He’s sure that he had at one point forgotten what voices sounded like when they weren’t shouting “Intruder!” or “Sound the alarms!” or “Freeze!”. For a time (brief, sure, but long enough to make an impression) Eliot’s world was the sound of grinding bones, the feel of bruised knuckles and the taste of blood in his mouth. So he thinks it’s fair that he’s a little skeptical when it comes to trust.

It was supposed to be just one job. They were supposed to steal some stupid blueprints, for some stupid aerospace executive, who decided to be stupid and try to kill them. Stupid. Eliot only planned to stick around for his payment, not become involved in some stupid team, with a stupid name and stupid _friends_. But then all of a sudden there was an office, and really good fake IDs, and the jobs were for good people, who just wanted things to be better and fair, and for the first time since he’d enlisted, Eliot felt like he was doing something right. 

He still didn’t trust them though. He knew better than that. Grifters aren’t the only ones who know how to act. He sat at the meetings, made suggestions and points, said “Dammit, Hardison!” and bided his time. He didn’t know how long he’d be able to stay here, but it was comfortable and _good_ so he decided that he may as well enjoy it while it lasted. 

But it lasted through a six month sabbatical, and Boston, and Nate going to prison, and taking over a small country, and Damian Moreau, and Victor Dubenich, and now Portland. It lasted through Hardison getting buried alive, and biological warfare in D.C., and Interpol’s Black Book. It lasted. And now, Nate and Sophie are gone, and it’s just him and Hardison and Parker, and he is struck one night with the feeling that _this is going to last_. He always somehow knew that but he had never thought about it as a permanent situation and now he is thinking about what they should have for dinner tomorrow and whether Hardison ever ordered the special sauce for the chicken like he’d promised (dammit, Hardison) and this is his life now. 

“I’m in”, Parker’s voice comes over the comms. “Burton Atlas Grade 6 High Security Safe, 90 seconds to get in, two minutes to clean up, and then we were never here.” She seems glum. “I hoped this one would be more fun.” Eliot can actually hear the sulk.

“Alright, Parker, you’re green for five minutes, so no dawdling. And remember we are here for the hard drive, so if there’s anything else in there you gotta leave-”

“Ooh diamonds!”

“Parker! Damn girl, what did I just say? You gotta leave it behind.” Eliot can hear Hardison continue to grumble, and he picks out certain words like, “woman” and “listen to me for once” and “Lucille”. 

“I know, I know. If they weren’t so shiny, I wouldn’t want them as much, so it’s their own fault really.” There are a number of clicks and whirs from Parker’s end and then she says, “Done” and Eliot knows that right now she’s running to the end of the hall where he’s waiting for her. The guards are, uh, asleep, on the carpet and it’s a straight shot to the exit. “Race ya!” she exclaims as she passes him in a blur. He’s after her in a second and they cross the threshold simultaneously. “Rematch!” she demands, but Lucille pulls up beside them and they jump in, and that’s it. Another job well done. 

They get the hard drive to their client and the CEO of a multinational corporation is revealed to be a fraud and a crook. Millions of dollars are paid out to struggling families who had fallen victim to the scheme and all in all, it’s a good day. 

Hardison and Parker have noticed his quietness. Neither of them mentions it but he knows they know because Parker stares at him longer than usual and looks concerned, and Hardison is touchy-feely in a not so terrible way and this is going to last. Eliot promised Sophie that he would keep Hardison and Parker safe, until his dying day. For the first time in his life, he hopes that he never dies, so he can keep this, keep them forever. Hardison understands this in the casual weight of Eliot’s hand on his shoulder while he explains the intricacies of the security system of their latest mark. Parker understands it in the gradually disappearing space between them on the sofa, until she can snuggle up by his side and he doesn’t push her away. 

He’s not sure he’ll ever quite understand it himself but he realises he doesn’t mind. He doesn’t need to understand. He trusts that they’ll understand for him. He _trusts_ them. He smiles as he stands to go make dinner. He smiles as he searches the cupboards for the special chicken sauce. And he even smiles a little as he grits his teeth and decides he’ll have to make beef instead.

“Dammit, Hardison!”


End file.
